The Perth Convention Bureau’s (PCB) 2019 Aspire Program is now open to individuals involved with not-for-profit associations in Western Australia, who can apply for the City of Perth Convention Scholarship and the Giving West Conference Scholarship. In addition, the City of Fremantle Convention Scholarship and the City of Mandurah Convention Scholarship are open to individuals involved with not-for-profit associations in the City of Fremantle and the City of Mandurah respectively.

The aim of the Aspire Program is to assist the individual’s personal and professional development through attendance at a relevant national* and/or international* conference. The funding covers travel, accommodation and registration expenses to the maximum value of the award.

Application information and guidelines are now available at http://www.pcb.com.au/aspire. The deadline for applications is the 29th March 2019. Individuals are able to apply for multiple scholarships if eligible. A wide of assistance and advice is available to help you apply, for more information or to enquiry if you are eligible to apply, please contact Malcolm Farrell-Mitchell, Perth Convention Bureau – Email: mfarrell-mitchell@pcb.com.au.

*dependent on individual award guidelines

The UK Railway Industry Association (RIA) and the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will see the rail associations work more closely together to help boost each country’s export potential in rail.

The agreement will see:

• The exchanging of information linked to research and innovation (not IP protected) undertaken in either country
• Sharing and exchanging information and approaches relating to skill needs, training and the attraction of career aspirants to the rail industry
• Closer working arrangements in trade fairs and rail exhibitions in either Australia, the UK or in third countries, where appropriate
• Access to meeting facilities in the offices of ARA or RIA by members of either organisation

Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, The Hon Michael McCormack MP, said, “Australia and the UK have long been partners in many aspects of our economies and our communities.

“This agreement is yet another partnership which will build upon our strong trade relationship, help encourage even more jobs and opportunities in the rail sector and be mutually beneficial for our economies.

“I know Australia’s regions have many exports – particularly our world-leading food and fibre – which the UK is looking to import and rail is a vital part of the mix to get that premium produce from paddock to port to plate.

“I look forward to seeing how our two countries can share expertise, ideas and insights to help grow jobs and opportunities in the rail sector in Australia and the UK.”

UK Minister of State for Trade and Export Promotion, Baroness Fairhead, said, “This agreement between RIA and ARA will further strengthen our trading relationship with Australia so that we can work together more closely on the delivery of ambitious rail infrastructure programs.

“The UK is a world leader in rail and has a particular focus on developing exciting new technologies. Projects including those such as Crossrail and HS2 mean that the UK is well placed to share insights, expertise and knowledge to help build rail industry capability around the world.

“This capability has been harnessed in the government’s recently launched Rail Sector Deal which aims to support yet further innovation and the application of more, new technologies in this growing sector.

“We very much look forward to the enhanced cooperation that this new agreement with Australia can bring and encourage any interested companies to get in touch with the UK Department for International Trade to find out more.”

Danny Broad, Chief Executive Officer of the Australasian Railway Association (ARA), said, “This partnership is of immense value to our industry. We are undergoing a renaissance in rail in Australia, with major new rail projects in our capital cities and regions over the next decade.

“The opportunity to leverage the skills and expertise of UK rail companies will add breadth and depth to our industry, and give Australian businesses valuable insights and partnerships. Working and collaborating with the RIA on common industry challenges will provide consolidation of ideas for possible suitable outcomes for the rail sectors covered by both the ARA and RIA.”

Darren Caplan, Chief Executive of the UK Railway Industry Association, said, “We are delighted to support this partnership between the UK and Australasian rail industries, which will see the exchange of knowledge and expertise across the two countries.

“In the UK, rail exports £800 million a year and will play a vital role in achieving the UK Government’s aim of increasing exports to 35 per cent of GDP, as we exit the EU. We look forward to working with our colleagues at ARA to maximise the exporting potential of both industries.”

Original article published by Infrastructure Magazine. View the article here. 

The Australian Airports Association (AAA) has launched a new Women in Airports Network (WIAN) to coincide with International Women’s Day.

AAA Chief Executive Officer Caroline Wilkie said the network would create a community to support the advancement of women across all aspects of airport operations.

“Airports operate in a truly global industry and a diverse workforce is absolutely crucial to support our growth and success,” Ms Wilkie said.

“With global passenger traffic expected to double in the next 15 years, there will be many great career development opportunities for airport staff in the future.

“We are absolutely committed to ensuring gender diversity is a clear focus as we prepare for this next phase of growth in the industry.”

The WIAN will provide a forum to discuss career development and leadership pathways for women working in airports across Australia and New Zealand.

It will support the participation and advancement of women working in both operational and leadership roles.

AAA members will be invited to start the dialogue through a dedicated LinkedIn group ahead of a Women in Airports Forum to be held in November 2019.

The forum will precede the AAA National Conference and will seek to identify key initiatives for the WIAN to pursue on behalf of its members.

“The forum will provide an opportunity for detailed discussion on supporting gender diversity at airports across Australia and New Zealand,” Ms Wilkie said.

The WIAN was launched on International Women’s Day, in support of this year’s theme #BalanceforBetter.

The Australian Golf Course Superintendents’ Association (AGCSA) and Golf Business Forum are delighted to announce a new partnership that will deliver Australia’s largest ever Sports Turf Management and Golf Business Conference in Melbourne, June 2020.

Through this partnership, the AGCSA is delighted to announce an agreement with Golf Business Forum, to host the GBF in conjunction with the 2020 AGCSA Sports Turf Conference in Melbourne. Already the largest Conference in Golf Course and Sports Turf Management in Australia, this partnership provides a platform for the AGCSA to significantly expand Conference education, networking and value that Members and Trade Partners receive.

“Partnering with Golf Business Forum ensures that Australasian Sports Turf Managers have expanded access to leading education opportunities to continue creating and successfully managing some of the most breathtaking sporting facilities in the world.” explains AGCSA CEO Mark Unwin.

Guy Chapple, the Forum’s Director, is equally thrilled. “This is a natural evolution for Golf Business Forum. It’s been our objective to create an education and networking event for the whole golf industry. Joining forces with AGCSA, together with the ongoing support of our Foundation Partner Golf Australia, and the PGA of Australia, will see this combined event have a tremendously positive impact on the golf industry.”

Over 1,250 delegates are expected to attend the combined program in which both events will be held concurrently, coming together for education, networking and a large trade exhibition.

The Golf Business and Sports Turf Trade Exhibition will occupy a massive 6,000m2 at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, making it the largest and most diverse golf and sports field industry exhibition ever staged in Australia.

The Australasian Turfgrass Conference is a 4-day event for Australian and international Sports Turf Managers. The Golf Business Forum is a 2-day event that connects and inspires the entire range of golf businesses, industry organisations and commercial partners that delight Australia’s 2.1M golf participants.

Both events will tee-off on Tuesday 23 June. All education sessions will be held in the main theatre providing a single stream of education for Delegates. Tuesday afternoon education will be provided in the exhibition area and different concurrent sessions on a range of Golf Business and Sports Turf topics will be offered. The Conference will expand into specific streams of education provided on Wednesday, before a combined closing keynote presentation.

Optional pre-event workshops will be available on Monday 22 June, and the Turfgrass Conference will provide further education, certification, a range of facility visits and Turf Management tours on Thursday.

Unwin explained “The role of a Sports Turf Manager is evolving from having a pure focus on the science of Agronomic management, to an increased emphasis on the leadership and development of turf management teams. To be able to partner with Golf Business Forum and significantly expand the education offering to Sports Turf Managers is something I’m particularly looking forward to in 2020.”

There will also be plenty of opportunity for networking and social interaction at the event. Golf Business Forum will continue with its major social event on Tuesday night, whilst the Turfgrass Conference will get together for the Sports Turf Management Industry Awards Dinner on Monday evening and the legendary Conference Farewell Bash on Thursday night.

“We know that successful golf facilities enjoy a great partnership between the General Manager and Golf Course Superintendent. Both Guy and I worked with that approach in mind during our partnership discussions, and we are both very eager to continue this approach and bring something very special to the golf industry in 2020.” Unwin concluded.

About the Asia Pacific Turfgrass Conference

Held annually, the Turfgrass Conference & Trade Exhibition is the largest event of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, encompassing over 120 hours of education and showcasing the latest in Turf management machinery, equipment, research, technology and products.

Each year, Golf Course Superintendents and their teams join hundreds of Sportsturf professionals, greenkeeping staff, Curators and Turf Maintenance personnel who attend the variety of Turf Management, Environment and Biodiversity and Management education seminars from leading Australian and International presenters, and visit the trade show to browse, question and hear from representatives across all elements of Sportsturf Management.

2019 Asia Pacific Turfgrass Conference & Trade Exhibition

June 24 - 28, 2019

Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre - Brisbane, Australia

2019 Turfgrass Conference registrations are now open, and a very limited number of Trade Exhibition opportunities remain for the 2019 Turfgrass Conference.

AGCSA Members receive a substantial discount for Conference Registration, so Join Now to save $200 on 2019 Conference Registration.

Learn more about this year’s Australasian Turfgrass Conference & Trade Exhibition via https://www.agcsa.com.au/conference/ and Golf Business Forum 2020 via https://www.golfbusinessforum.com.au/.

Originally published on www.agcsa.com.au. View the article here. 

As AuSAE is a Partner of the Small Business Hub located in Canberra, you have access to desks and meeting rooms for Canberra-based work and meetings.

And the best part – it’s free!

The Hub provides small businesses, family enterprises and industry associations representing small businesses with easy access to Parliament House and government departments.

It’s also the perfect venue to work collaboratively on key small business issues and policy, to continue to build a fertile environment for small businesses to prosper and grow.

Booking into the Hub is easy, with a new four-step booking tool and instant confirmation. To book, go to https://www.asbfeo.gov.au/sbhub/book_a_space and click on ‘Book Now’. The Hub is open Monday to Friday from 8:00am until 5:00pm.

For more information, visit https://www.asbfeo.gov.au/sbhub

It has been a productive month in the AuSAE office as we start to roll out some of our new initiatives for 2019.

Members should have started to received their information to activate their membership with the American Society of Association Executives this week. This is an exciting opportunity to gain access to a raft of resources and access a well-connected Association community through the “Collaborate” site. I encourage all members to get connected and take full advantage of this new opportunity.

We have conducted our first round of Executive briefings with our exclusive Workplace Relations partner FCB in Sydney and Melbourne this week – covering the proposed policy changes in the industrial relations space as we head towards a Federal Election in May as well as some of the key legislative changes that have occurred in the later part of 2018. FCB have produced a fantastic hard copy resource which I am happy to send to those members who were not able to attend the briefing events this week.

The AuSAE Mentoring and Leadership program is currently open for applications for both Mentees and Mentors. The program, now in its third year is the only mentoring program in Australia that has been designed and developed by Association Executives for Association Executives. Delivered by mentoring experts the Art of Mentoring the program has produced some inspiring results for both mentees and mentors in previous years. To find out more about the program and how to participate please click here.

Our flagship event the AuSAE Conference and Exhibition will be held in Brisbane in June (11-13). Under the theme of ‘Upholding Tradition, Embracing the Future’ will see us deliver a program of both practical and inspirational speakers and topics. Registration is open and announced speakers can be found here.

The AuSAE board recently met in Brisbane, and as we continue to grow and mature as an organisation so too does our vision. We are the professional body for the the profession of Association Management and will continue to develop and deliver services and support to ensure a strong, vibrant and respected association community. Some of our focus areas for 2019 will be to:

• Finalise the introduction of a Professional Certification for Association Executives
• Increase our Advocacy efforts to communicate the tangible impact Associations have on our society
• Continue to create meaningful connections for our member community through targeted networking and educational activities
• Form strategic partnerships to increase our capacity to deliver targeted and relevant products and services to our members

I look forward to talking more about these initiatives in the coming months. Until then we are here to serve so please let us know if there is anything we can assist you with.

Warm regards

Toni

The Association of Consulting Architects (ACA) has appointed Angelina Pillai as the organisation’s first CEO.

“The new role of CEO will help ensure the ACA provides a coordinated, coherent national outlook, while drawing on the diverse yet complementary strengths offered by the ACA branches,” says ACA national president John Held.

Pillai has spent the past 20 years in leadership roles across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, in Australia and internationally. Most notable are her roles with three membership associations over 13 years, from procurement and supply chain to human resources and general medical practice. Her responsibilities included significant involvement in membership strategy, engagement and growth; education and training; strategic partnerships and business development.

Pillai says tahat she is particularly interested in the impact that digitisation makes in membership associations and leveraging data to better understand the segments of professional markets, and customising relevant product offerings for those market segments to create value for members.

Regarding the future of the ACA, Pillai says that “Competition is rife in keeping membership associations thriving and agile in this world of disruption. Disintermediation is a reality to be reckoned with, so membership associations need to be vigilant about listening to and supporting their members through robust content, standards of practice and the point of reference for their members… Otherwise, someone else will.”

Original article posted on Architecture and Design. Click here to view.

Bill Suen has been appointed chief executive officer of the Dental Hygienists Association of Australia following the resignation of Dr Melanie Hayes.

After an extensive and thorough recruitment process the DHAA Board announced that Suen will start in his new role in May 2019.

Suen is currently CEO of the Pharmaceutical Society of Victoria and has extensive and proven experience in a range of small and large organisations in both the public and private sectors.

“We are very fortunate to have someone of Bill Suen’s calibre and experience step up to lead our Association,” DHAA president Cheryl Dey said.

“Both myself and the Board are looking forward to working with him to continue to grow and develop the DHAA.”

Suen, who has held a number of senior roles in the health sector said: “I am honoured to join and work with a very passionate Board supported by state chairs, local committees, staff and contractors.

“The DHAA has achieved a lot as a truly member-owned and run peak body serving its members and the profession. My short-term goal is to get to know the local committees and to get an in-depth understanding of the needs of members in order to provide [them with] appropriate CPD and practice support.”

Suen concluded: “Over the longer term, I hope to work with elected officials and volunteers to ensure every DHAA member can enjoy a professionally satisfying and financially rewarding career as a dental hygienist or oral health therapist.”

Originally posted in Bite Magazine. Click here to view the article. 

Kia ora

I am really looking forward to my first trip to New Zealand for 2019 to attend the Future Leaders Conference in Wellington on the 14-15 March.

As for many of your own organisations, the development of our next generation of leaders will be critical to the continued success of our Associations and the important contribution they make to our societies. This inaugural conference is shaping up to be a fantastic 2 days and I urge all our senior executives to consider sending their aspiring leaders to this event.

The AuSAE board recently met in Brisbane, and as we continue to grow and mature as an organisation so too does our vision. We are the professional body for the profession of Association Management and will continue to develop and deliver services to ensure a strong, vibrant and respected community. Some of our focus areas for 2019 will be to:

• Finalise the introduction of a Professional Certification for Association Executives
• Increase our Advocacy efforts to communicate the tangible impact Associations have on our society
• Continue to create meaningful connections for our member community
• Form strategic partnerships to increase our capacity to deliver targeted and relevant products and services to our members

I look forward to catching up with those of you attending the Futures Leaders conference. I will have some time on the Wednesday 13 March - so if you can't make the event please reach out and I'll come and meet you for a coffee if you have the time.

Warm regards

Toni

Australasian Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AusACPDM) 9th Biennial Conference

• Dates: 21 to 24 March 2018
• Delegates: 548
• Destination: Auckland
• PCO: DC Conferences

Widening the audience in Auckland

New Zealand provided the Australasian Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine with its biggest conference yet.

Any initial fears in the Australian organising team that delegate numbers would decrease with the trip over the Tasman proved unfounded. The 9th Biennial Conference attracted nearly 550 Allied Health Professionals and Medical Professionals to the Cordis hotel in Auckland, up from 467 at the Adelaide event in 2016.

Jo Robinson, Business Development & Sponsorship Manager at Sydney-based DC Conferences, says: “The 2018 conference delegate numbers exceeded expectation which was fantastic. We had to increase the size of the plenary to accommodate the increase in numbers. The main increase in numbers came from New Zealanders attending, however it was also very encouraging to see the high number of Australian delegates crossing the Tasman to attend the conference. Having direct flights between all the major Australian centres to Auckland certainly made access easy.”

Also heartening was the leap in international delegates, particularly from China, helping AusACPDM with its goal of growing the biennial conference to become the pre-eminent professional development opportunity in the Asia-Pacific region for clinicians and researchers working in the field of cerebral palsy and child-onset disability.

“Auckland is easy to access for international delegates. Having those increases is really important because we are an Australasian association,” Robinson notes.

The conference was themed ‘Empowerment and Partnership’, with a diverse programme including 120 free papers, 15 breakfast sessions and 16 concurrent workshops, all demonstrating high quality research findings to ensure strong, well-informed, empowered clinicians.

Local experts

While Auckland was seen as the next logical destination in the association’s conference rotation, a strong local knowledge hub was integral to the event’s success. This included organising committee members Professor Sue Stott of Starship Children’s Hospital and Amy Hogan of the Cerebral Palsy Society of New Zealand.

“It was an excellent local organising committee. It is so important to have them on the ground to make introductions and build the relationships,” Robinson adds. “They are really well known in Cerebral Palsy in New Zealand. Delegates commented that the speakers at the event were absolute experts in their field.”

Robinson notes that Tourism New Zealand’s Conference Assistance Programme was also a great help.

“The main challenge with taking a conference offshore is budget. We applied for CAP funding and we were able to use that for targeted marketing to get more delegates to the conference, including developing our conference website.

“We also knew that a number of our loyal and long-standing exhibitors/sponsors would

not cross the Tasman as they either have representation in New Zealand or don’t have NZ as part of their market, so it was a challenge to make up that lost revenue. When I could see our exhibitor numbers had dropped we applied for financial support from the Maurice and Phyllis Paykel Trust, which encourages the development of health-related research in New Zealand.

“Having both Tourism New Zealand’s and the Paykel Trust’s support was of great benefit and it assisted with keeping the delegate registration cost down. From the conference survey 40% of respondents were self-funded to attend the conference, so registration cost is very important.”

A Roaring success

The venue and programme also played their part in a positive conference experience. An initial choice between Sky City Convention Centre and the Cordis (formerly The Langham) ended in favour of the Cordis, which was able to provide “a softer and friendlier environment and encouraged small group interactions and offered many private and relaxing spaces to network”, Robinson says. “The venue floor staff were very attentive and the venue conference manager was excellent to work with and very accommodating; 95% of survey respondents rate the Cordis as Good/Very Good.”

One unexpected challenge was musician Ed Sheeran announcing two concerts at the same

time as the conference, which put pressure on local accommodation. “Even though we advised delegates to get in and book accommodation early a number didn’t and found it hard to find accommodation. Other hotels were suggested on the conference website that were located in close proximity to try and help.”

Conference highlights included a traditional Māori pōwhiri welcome to open proceedings; and a Roaring 20’s-themed gala dinner at the Heritage Hotel’s Grand Tearoom.

“It was nice to be able to bring a New Zealand element to it with the pōwhiri at the start,” Robinson says. “While some delegates were initially skeptical about the themed approach to the dinner, it was excellent. A lot of allied health people love dancing and really enjoyed it and we got very good feedback.”

A Tourism New Zealand video and link on the conference website suggesting things to do in Auckland and New Zealand also proved popular. “Delegates were saying there was a lot to see and do.”

In all, organisers were very happy with the results of the Auckland event, and hope it will now encourage a more diverse delegation at the next Australian event. “It was nice to expose more New Zealanders to the conference. Hopefully now they have experienced it they will come over to the next conference in Perth.”